(TRENTON) – Assembly Majority Leader Louis Greenwald (D-Camden/Burlington) issued the following statement Thursday after the House approved the Republican health care bill:

“I am extremely disappointed to see that President Trump and Congressman MacArthur’s bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act has passed the House. The impact of this legislation on New Jersey will be devastating financially and to our residents. By ripping away healthcare from over 500,000 New Jerseyans middle- and working-class families will be overwhelmed, and we have yet to see the full impact of consequences for those with employer-based health plans. We will be losing out on the strides we have made to insure record numbers of Americans since 2010. We need to protect the improved access to healthcare that all Americans have seen, not create more inequality within our nation.

“We can’t afford to lose the ground we’ve gained under the Affordable Care Act.  New Jerseyans need a better plan than this partisan pandering for our health care going forward, one that ensures coverage for all Garden State residents. Robbing health care from millions of Americans does nothing to make our country great again. Hopefully the Senate will see the wisdom in protecting preexisting conditions and take an educated vote on a piece of legislation where we know what the cost impact will be on our budget and the impact on human life.”